


Operation: Save the Friggin' Planet

by ComeBackWhen



Series: BigBro!Seph AU [3]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Sephiroth Escapes The Labs AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 13:34:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4181757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ComeBackWhen/pseuds/ComeBackWhen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After his vacation, Zack returns to Shinra with his big news. Also Reno doodles a comic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Operation: Save the Friggin' Planet

“Angeal, my man, I am in love.”

Zack grinned when his dear friend and commanding officer did not even bother to look up from the page he was scribbling on, “Did Marissa in accounting finally agree to lunch?”

Marissa. Zack wondered if she would miss him, now that he was going to stop asking her out. Not that she could hold a candle to Aeris, “Nah. That was doomed to failure.”

Angeal did spare him a glance over that.  Marissa had been one of his more serious pursuits for almost six months. He arched an eyebrow, “Luann, then… or that secretary from Urban Development?”

Zack chuckled, dropping into one of the comfy chairs in front of Angeal’s desk, “No on both accounts.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Angeal was surprised enough to set down his pen. Zack could not remember the last time he had done that during one of their work time conversations. Angeal took his duties seriously, like most everything else.

“I think I should be insulted.” Zack teased, setting the package he had been carrying in his lap so he could dig through it, “Or possibly hurt… I thought we were friends, Angeal.”

Angeal rolled his eyes, taking Zack mocking with his usual good humor, “You’re a flirt. Even you can admit that you tend to choose women who will never be serious about you.”

“You’re right.” Zack conceded, he pulled the tin that had been on the top out of the box, “That was before I went home.”

Angeal chuckled, “You mean your mother finally managed to find some girl to set you up with who doesn’t set your teeth on edge?”

Zack shook his head and held out the open tin of cookies to his commander, “What? No. I stopped off in Cosmo Canyon to pick up some hair dye for her. I was asking directions from a girl near the big bonfire and tripped right off of the platform like a moron.”

“That I can believe.” Angeal selected a cookie with a nod of thanks.

“So, I open my eyes, and there is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.” Zack leaned back, taking a cookie for himself, “Long brown hair, bright green eyes, prettiest damn smile… I was sure I had died and I was looking at an angel. Sweet too… healed my poor bruised body, even though I was a Soldier. She’s good with materia. I felt like I could take on a Grand Horn bare handed.”

“You usually feel that way.” Angeal snorted and took a bite out of his cookie. He let out a sound of delight, “This is good.”

Zack laughed and held the tin out again for Angeal to take a second cookie, “She’s a baker too, my Aeri.”

“Aeri?” Angeal repeated slowly. Zack wiggled his eyebrows at Angeal and a spark of recognition flashed in the other man’s eyes. Zack loved how quick his friends were sometimes, “Unusual name.”

“It’s like that with her whole family.” Zack said, “Her mother is Falna and her brother is Seph. I’d guess the brother was adopted… not much like either of the ladies in looks, but it’s plain as day they love him regardless. Still… didn’t feel right to ask, you know?”

“That’s probably for the best.” Angeal said, carefully neutral.

“Her mother’s a scholar, studying the planet and stuff.” Zack lifted the box, “I was trying to show off, so I asked if I could read some of her work. She sent me the copies here while I was home. I tried reading it, but couldn’t really make heads or tails of it. You’re really good with all this scholarly crap, think you could give it a once over and brief me so I sound like I know what I’m talking about when I go visit her next?”

Angeal’s laugh was forced, but only Zack could tell, “That explains the cookies.”

“A little bribery between friends.” Zack agreed.

“Well, they were good cookies.” Angeal took the box from him, “Alright. It’s not too long, I hope?”

“Nah.” Zack stood with his cookie tin, “With how you read, you’ll have it done in a couple hours. I’m on my way to Administrative Research… I kind of owe Valentine ten gil… and he doesn’t know it yet, so more cookies to share. You got anything that needs to go that way?”

Angeal was quick to stand, “I’ve been meaning to talk to him anyway. I’ll come with you. Who knows, I might be able to keep him from caving in your skull for lifting money off of him. That’s really poor taste, Zack.”

“Blame Reno He’s been suggesting that as the ultimate prank for a month now.” Zack grinned, using the truth to help cover up his lies, “I couldn’t help myself.”

Once they were out of Angeal’s office and lost in the crowd of people moving through the building, Angeal glanced down at him and murmured, “Does this mean what I think it means?”

“You better believe it.” Zack snorted, “Only I could fall ass backwards into the people we’ve been looking for, for  _years_.”

“So the thing with  _Aeri_ -“

Zack’s face split into a grin again. He hadn’t been able to help it. Any time he thought of her or said her name, he smiled. There was just something about her… “No. That was for real. I took her to dinner-“

“Wait. Save it.” He looked upward significantly, “Just in case.”

They made quick work of the rest of the walk to the Turk offices. One of the benefits of Vincent’s treatment by Shinra was a healthy mistrust of the upper management. His office was regularly swept for bugs and he had even invested in specialty devices that ruined any audio recordings taken in a ten foot radius around his desk. He only trusted Angeal and Genesis, and by extension Zack, because of the way that the highest ranking Soldiers spoke of Sephiroth.

Part of Vincent’s agreement to return to Shinra involved a clause that freed Sephiroth from any sort of ties to the company, unless he so chose to return. Zack had not told Sephiroth about that, knowing that the man would be likely to feel he owed something to Vincent.  The reunion would be more meaningful to both men if Sephiroth chose it because he wanted to know Vincent.

Vincent met them both with arched eyebrows as they stepped into his office and locked the door. He set aside his paperwork, “Gentlemen.”

“Zack found them.” Angeal said, skipping straight to the heart of the matter, “In Cosmo Canyon.”

Vincent’s eyes were sharp and even after years of working with the man, the intensity of his red gaze was still unsettling. Zack shook the cookie tin he was holding, “Took his adoptive sister out on a date. Once I realized what was going on, I got them to admit the whole thing. She sent me cookies.”

“Are you sure that was the best course?” Angeal asked, settling down into one of Vincent’s spare chairs.

“Are you kidding? They’re awesome.” Zack laughed at his superior’s annoyed sigh, “Yes. I’m sure. They’ve been living like fugitives since they escaped. Aeris lied so smoothly about her past that I almost believed her… and I already knew that her  _brother_ was Sephiroth.  I thought they deserved to know that Shinra wasn’t breathing down their necks.”

“Start from the beginning.” Vincent said.

Zack nodded and told the story from the start. He described the whole family and did his best to repeat everything that was said. At the end, he turned to Vincent, “There’s no question that he’s your kid, Valentine. They’ve dyed his hair brown, so he looks more like you than if it were silver. I think he has Dr. Crescent’s eyes under the mako glow, but you know how that goes. His face shape and his mouth are all you though. He even has your scowl!”

“You’re hilarious.” Vincent grumbled.

“Yeah, that one.” Zack teased, “He’s done well, man. Ifalna takes care of him like he was hers and Aeris and him act like they were always brother and sister. No kidding, he was cleaning his sword, waiting for me to pick her up. If I hadn’t been a Soldier, I would have been threatened. I- uh- told him a little about you… about what happened. Once he gets past all the distrust, I bet he’d like to meet you.”

Angeal cuffed him on the shoulder, “Don’t meddle.”

“The thought is… appreciated.” Vincent said with what passed as a smile for the man, “We will just have to see.”

Angeal turned back to Zack, “So the thing with the box of papers?”

“Oh, yeah, Ifalna is an Ancent… uh Cetra… obviously.” Zack shrugged, “She’s been working with the Elders at Cosmo Canyon on planet studies. She says that Jenova’s dangerous and that mako will kill the planet. I tried to get her to agree to meet with you, but she’s hesitant.”

“For obvious and very good reasons.” Angeal agreed, “The notes are the first step to bridging the gap?”

“She suggested that there may eventually be some injuries that a Soldier won’t be able to heal from.” Zack said, “She told me that anyone who agrees to let them have their freedom can come to her and she’ll try to help. It might be a good idea for us to get familiar with her work for our own sakes.”

The color drained from Angeal’s face, “Damn. She’s more right than she knows. A few years back, Genesis took an injury in Wutai. He brushed it off, assuming that it would heal up on its own. It never did. Materia… potions… nothing really helped. Hollander calls it degradation. He was able to give us both special boosters to help keep it from getting too serious, but that’s why neither of us really go into the field anymore. If we take a real injury…”

“I had no idea.” Zack looked bewildered, “I just figured you stepped up to take on more work around here…”

“He was able to fix the flaws in the later batches of Soldier using Hojo’s notes, but the damage has been done for some of us.” Angeal glanced up at Zack, “Aeris’s mother can help?”

Zack shrugged, “Read over what I gave you. I’ll be the go between and we’ll see what we can do. Honestly, if mako is killing the planet, we might want to consider trying to change Rufus’s mind. ”

“He will not just give up the source of his money and power.” Vincent pointed out.

“He might if it costs him all his muscle.” Zack said with a wicked grin, “Angeal, how much of Soldier would follow you and Genesis if you left?”

Angeal stared up at him in shock, “I don’t know, a third perhaps?”

“If we added Sephiroth into the mix?” Zack asked.

“More, I should think.” Angeal shook his head as he thought it over, “Not all, but…”

“Enough to make a difference, certainly.” Vincent fixed him with a calculating look, “Add a segment of the Turks to that, for you must know there are some of us who would choose to side with Soldier over Shinra… and more still would change sides. You’re thinking like a Turk, Fair.”

Zack snorted, “I spend enough time around here. Something was bound to stick. I’m certainly not above a little extortion to save the frigging planet. What about you guys?”

“I feel a headache coming on.” Angeal moaned, his head dropping into his hands, “I’ve never had so many headaches as I have since I took you on as a student all those years ago.”

“Woof, woof.” Zack teased. He had found out from Angeal’s mother that Angeal had once described him as a puppy, all paws and tails with no common sense. Zack would have been more hurt if it had not been such an apt description of his younger days with Soldier. Angeal had been mortified, so Zack enjoyed occasionally reminding him of it.

“I, for one, am glad of you.” Vincent snorted, “We searched Cosmo Canyon, twice. How could we have missed them?”

Zack waved that off, climbing to his feet and collecting his cookies, “The people there love the three of them. I was only there a few hours and I could see it. You would have had to murder someone in that town to get them to come out willingly. Had Aeris realized I was a Soldier before she came over, I don’t think I would have seen any of them.”

Vincent made a non-committal noise in his throat, but did not say more. Zack gave Angeal and Vincent a two fingered salute, “If anyone asks, I stole ten gil off of you two weeks back. Whoever mentions it is the one who bugged Angeal’s office. See you guys later!”

“I swear to Shiva he sounds more like a Turk every day.” Angeal groaned as he slipped out of the room, “I blame you, Valentine.”

“I accept credit with genuine pleasure.” Vincent replied wickedly.

As he was headed out, a pale kid in a white lab coat was staring down at Reno in alarm as he scribbled on a piece of paper. Zack quickly headed in his direction. He had missed the response to Hojo’s request the week before. This one looked excellent, judging from the whiteness of the new intern’s cheeks.

He casually held out the cookie tin to the intern as he glanced at Reno’s handiwork. Hojo took up the majority of the page with a word bubble filled with phrases that included, “I’m a giant blow hard and nobody likes me,” and “My ‘kid’ snuck out of a highly fortified building right under my stupid nose!” Behind him a caricature of Vincent and Lucrecia were lewdly groping one another.

Zack chuckled and left him a cookie, “Nice.”

“Welcome back, yo.” Reno did not bother to look up, “I’ll send you a finished copy when I’m done.”

“You’re the best.” Zack clapped the intern on the shoulder and wandered off.

The place was flawed, but there was a lot of good that could be done. Zack intended to be at the head of it. In the meantime, he’d go drag Cloud out of whatever he was doing with the Thirds and bring him to the slums as assistance for a monster hunt around Sector Four. They really needed to catch up.

**Author's Note:**

> You can see Reno's response here: http://comebackwhen.tumblr.com/post/122130351263/so-this-is-the-renos-reponse-to-the-memo


End file.
